\u2018In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)\u2019 from \u2018Eraserhead\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"ERASERHEAD,](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/lynch-music-eraserhead.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tThe landmark Eraserhead <\/em>gets much of its subconscious-plumbing unease from the hissing, droning, rumbling noisescapes of Lynch and Alan R. Splet. But the film\u2019s most memorable brainworm happens when Henry Spencer\u2019s radiator opens up to reveal a tiny stage, where the enigmatic Lady in the Radiator croons the simple, 98-second weeper \u201cIn Heaven.\u201d The haunting, cartoonish tune \u2014 written by Lynch and Peter Ivers \u2014 would transfix the audiences that crowded midnight showings, and, as Eraserhead <\/em>gained currency as a signpost of iconoclastic anti-mainstream expression, covers began to populate the setlists of irreverent bands like Devo, Tuxedomoon, Bauhaus and the Pixies. \u2013Christopher R. Weingarten<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018In Dreams\u2019 from \u2018Blue Velvet\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"BLUE](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
![\"BLUE](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/lynch-music-in-dreams-blue-velvet.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: \u00a9 De Laurentiis Group\/Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tThe emotional capstone of wide-eyed Jeffrey Beaumont sifting through the perverse underbelly of Lumberton, North Carolina is being forced to watch mysterious Ben passionately lip sync Roy Orbison\u2019s 1963 hit \u201cIn Dreams\u201d into an industrial work light. Orbison hated the use of the song after seeing the film but, pushed by his friends to rewatch it, ended up appreciating it. Orbison re-recorded the song, released a music video that incorporated Blue Velvet footage and begun a career Renaissance that lasted until his death in 1988.\u2013Christopher R. Weingarten<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Love Me\u2019 from \u2018Wild at Heart\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"WILD](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/lynch-music-wild-at-heart-love-me.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: \u00a9Samuel Goldwyn Films\/Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tYears before Nicolas Cage married Lisa Marie Presley or skydived with Elvis impersonators in Honeymoon in Vegas<\/em>, the actor first channeled The King in Wild at Heart<\/em>, Lynch\u2019s ultra-violent road movie about two star-crossed lovers. Elvis himself inspired Lynch\u2019s interpretation of Cage\u2019s character Sailor, and Presley\u2019s music features on a pair of occasions \u2014 both times sung by Cage \u2014 including a rock club rendition of \u201cLove Me\u201d delivered to Laura Dern\u2019s Lula. (As evidenced by this list, an artist singing on stage was a reoccurring motif in Lynch\u2019s work, from Blue Velvet<\/em> to Mulholland Drive<\/em> to the band-of-the-week format of Twin Peaks: The Return<\/em>). \u201cDavid was a singular genius in cinema, one of the greatest artists of this or any time,\u201d Cage said in a statement Thursday. \u201cHe was brave, brilliant, and a maverick with a joyful sense of humor. I never had more fun on a film set than working with David Lynch. He will always be solid gold.\u201d \u2013Daniel Kreps<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nAngelo Badalamenti, Music from \u2018Twin Peaks\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"TWIN](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/lynch-music-angelo-b-twin-peaks-score.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: ABC Photo Archives\/Disney General Entertainment Content\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tLynch was sitting with Angelo Badalamenti when he told the composer what he was envisioning for the score to his upcoming mystery drama. \u201cDavid said, \u2018Start it off foreboding, like you\u2019re in a dark wood, and then segue into something beautiful to reflect the trouble of a beautiful teenage girl,\u201d Badalamenti recalled<\/a> to us in 2014. \u201cThen, once you\u2019ve got that, go back and do something that\u2019s sad and go back into that sad, foreboding darkness.\u201d In one take, Badalamenti created the spectral \u201cLaura Palmer\u2019s Theme,\u201d one of the many highlights on one of the most influential soundtracks of all time. Whether instrumental or with vocalist Julee Cruise, Badalamenti\u2019s luring, ominous dream pop became just as iconic as the series itself. The theme song \u2014\u00a0a foggy trip of walking bass to match the imagery <\/a>of the fictional Northwestern town \u2014 even won a Grammy in 1991, beating out Phil Collins, Quincy Jones, and Kenny G.\u00a0\u2013Angie Martoccio<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Just You\u2019 from \u2018Twin Peaks\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"TWIN](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/lynch-music-just-you-twin-peaks.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: BC Photo Archives\/Disney General Entertainment Content\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tLynch heard that James Marshall \u2014 the actor behind earnest Peaks<\/em> protagonist James Hurley \u2014 was bringing his guitar to the set to kill time between takes. Naturally, he asked if the actor wanted to perform a song on the show. Together with Badalamenti, the trio composed \u201cJust You,\u201d a song inspired by the Platters, layered with slapback and keening with Marshall\u2019s falsetto, ultimately wringing anxiety from same innocent space he explored with Bobby Vinton and Roy Orbison songs in Blue Velvet<\/em>. In an iconic scene from Episode 9, Marshall performs it with Lara Flynn Boyle and Sheryl Lee, but he didn\u2019t end up playing the guitar part: In a Q&A he said they already recorded it with West Coast punk icon John Doe of X. \u2013-C.W.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Falling\u2019 from \u2018Twin Peaks\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"TWIN](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/lynch-music-julee-cruise-twin-peaks.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tWhile composing the score for Blue Velvet<\/em>, Angelo Badalamenti pulled in the late singer Julee Cruise and introduced Lynch to her aerial vocals \u2013 and quickly, the three of them became permanent fixtures in each other\u2019s creative work. Both and Lynch are all over the credits of Cruise\u2019s debut album Floating into the Night<\/em>, but perhaps the greatest testament to the strength of their collaboration is Cruise\u2019s \u201cFalling,\u201d one of her many contributions to the Twin Peaks <\/em>series soundtrack (she also appeared on several episodes and in the film follow-ups as a haunting roadhouse singer.) The instrumental version became the show\u2019s theme, and the song won an unexpected Grammy in 1991. Cruise\u2019s otherworldly delivery here captures so much of why her sound complimented Lynch\u2019s bewildering universes: Gossamer and ghostly, she sang in a way that easily drifts between heavenly and hair-raising. \u2013Julyssa Lopez<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Sycamore Trees\u2019 from \u2018Twin Peaks\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"UNSPECIFIED](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/lynch-music-jimmy-scott-twin-peaks.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Andrew Lepley\/Redferns\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tIn the final episode of Twin Peaks<\/em>\u2018 original Nineties run, Agent Cooper takes one of his more memorable trips to the red room where the sweet-voiced jazz legend Jimmy Scott was performing the Lynch\/Badalamenti-penned \u201cSycamore Trees\u201d amid the flickering strobe lights. The appearance marked a small career comeback for Scott, who would release a 1992 major-label standards album, All the Way<\/em>, that would get him his first Grammy nomination. \u2013C.W.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018I\u2019m Deranged\u2019 from \u2018Lost Highway\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"AMSTERDAM,](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/lynch-music-bowie-lost-highway.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Frans Schellekens\/Redferns\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tDavid Bowie had been part of Lynch\u2019s world long before his song \u201cI\u2019m Deranged\u201d appeared in the opening sequence of the director\u2019s 1997 alt-horror film Lost Highway<\/em>. Bowie had been a fan of his work, appearing in 1992\u2019s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me <\/em>and basing elements of his album Outside<\/em> on the show. That 1995 LP was a concept album about a murdered teenage girl and the detectives investigating the case. Lynch and soundtrack producer Trent Reznor (working in film for only the second time, after Natural Born Killers<\/em>) chose to start Lost Highway <\/em>with the Outside<\/em> track \u201cI\u2019m Deranged.\u201d The moody synths and moaning lyrics set the tone for what\u2019s been described as Lynch\u2019s most disturbing movie. Appearing on a soundtrack next to tracks from Smashing Pumpkins, Marilyn Manson, and new music from Reznor himself, the song helped introduce Bowie to a new generation ready to have their sense of reality twisted into oblivion. \u2014Elisabeth Garber-Paul\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Llorando\u2019 from \u2018Mullholland Drive\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Rebekah](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/lynch-music-llorando-mulholland-dr.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Mullholland Dr.\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tLynch\u2019s surreal neo-noir mystery from 2001 hinges on an extraordinarily strange performance at the venue known as Club Silencio. Betty (Naomi Watts) and Rita (Laura Harring), the two characters we\u2019ve gotten to know in the first half of the film, go to the club together late at night. They watch from the audience as real-life SoCal singer-songwriter Rebekah Del Rio performs \u201cLlorando,\u201d her highly emotive Spanish-language cover of Roy Orbison\u2019s \u201cCrying.\u201d Betty and Rita get more and more upset as the performance goes on \u2014 until Del Rio suddenly collapses mid-song, her voice keeps going, and reality starts coming apart at the seams. \u2013Simon Vozick-Levinson<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Locomotion\u2019 from \u2018Inland Empire\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"INLAND](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/lynch-music-inland-empire-locomotion.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: \u00a9 Studio Canal\/Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tLeave it to Lynch to take one of the peppiest pop classics of the Sixties and weave it into the story of an actress\u2019s hellish ride through Hollywood horrors. Partway through Inland Empire<\/em>, as Laura Dern\u2019s character starts slipping into a nightmarish no-man\u2019s land between reality and film set delusions, a group of women appear in front of her and launch into an upbeat choreographed dance to Little Eva\u2019s bright, belt-it-out anthem \u201cLocomotion.\u201d The tonal jump \u2014 paired with Lynch\u2019s signature creepy lighting \u2014 is completely brilliant, making for one of the most WTF moments in the film\u2019s long sequence of WTF moments. Then, in a blink, the dancers are gone, leaving nothing but dead eerie quiet and Dern\u2019s terrified expression as we all try to figure out what just happened.\u2013J.L.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThe landmark Eraserhead <\/em>gets much of its subconscious-plumbing unease from the hissing, droning, rumbling noisescapes of Lynch and Alan R. Splet. But the film\u2019s most memorable brainworm happens when Henry Spencer\u2019s radiator opens up to reveal a tiny stage, where the enigmatic Lady in the Radiator croons the simple, 98-second weeper \u201cIn Heaven.\u201d The haunting, cartoonish tune \u2014 written by Lynch and Peter Ivers \u2014 would transfix the audiences that crowded midnight showings, and, as Eraserhead <\/em>gained currency as a signpost of iconoclastic anti-mainstream expression, covers began to populate the setlists of irreverent bands like Devo, Tuxedomoon, Bauhaus and the Pixies. \u2013Christopher R. Weingarten<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tThe emotional capstone of wide-eyed Jeffrey Beaumont sifting through the perverse underbelly of Lumberton, North Carolina is being forced to watch mysterious Ben passionately lip sync Roy Orbison\u2019s 1963 hit \u201cIn Dreams\u201d into an industrial work light. Orbison hated the use of the song after seeing the film but, pushed by his friends to rewatch it, ended up appreciating it. Orbison re-recorded the song, released a music video that incorporated Blue Velvet footage and begun a career Renaissance that lasted until his death in 1988.\u2013Christopher R. Weingarten<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tYears before Nicolas Cage married Lisa Marie Presley or skydived with Elvis impersonators in Honeymoon in Vegas<\/em>, the actor first channeled The King in Wild at Heart<\/em>, Lynch\u2019s ultra-violent road movie about two star-crossed lovers. Elvis himself inspired Lynch\u2019s interpretation of Cage\u2019s character Sailor, and Presley\u2019s music features on a pair of occasions \u2014 both times sung by Cage \u2014 including a rock club rendition of \u201cLove Me\u201d delivered to Laura Dern\u2019s Lula. (As evidenced by this list, an artist singing on stage was a reoccurring motif in Lynch\u2019s work, from Blue Velvet<\/em> to Mulholland Drive<\/em> to the band-of-the-week format of Twin Peaks: The Return<\/em>). \u201cDavid was a singular genius in cinema, one of the greatest artists of this or any time,\u201d Cage said in a statement Thursday. \u201cHe was brave, brilliant, and a maverick with a joyful sense of humor. I never had more fun on a film set than working with David Lynch. He will always be solid gold.\u201d \u2013Daniel Kreps<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tLynch was sitting with Angelo Badalamenti when he told the composer what he was envisioning for the score to his upcoming mystery drama. \u201cDavid said, \u2018Start it off foreboding, like you\u2019re in a dark wood, and then segue into something beautiful to reflect the trouble of a beautiful teenage girl,\u201d Badalamenti recalled<\/a> to us in 2014. \u201cThen, once you\u2019ve got that, go back and do something that\u2019s sad and go back into that sad, foreboding darkness.\u201d In one take, Badalamenti created the spectral \u201cLaura Palmer\u2019s Theme,\u201d one of the many highlights on one of the most influential soundtracks of all time. Whether instrumental or with vocalist Julee Cruise, Badalamenti\u2019s luring, ominous dream pop became just as iconic as the series itself. The theme song \u2014\u00a0a foggy trip of walking bass to match the imagery <\/a>of the fictional Northwestern town \u2014 even won a Grammy in 1991, beating out Phil Collins, Quincy Jones, and Kenny G.\u00a0\u2013Angie Martoccio<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tLynch heard that James Marshall \u2014 the actor behind earnest Peaks<\/em> protagonist James Hurley \u2014 was bringing his guitar to the set to kill time between takes. Naturally, he asked if the actor wanted to perform a song on the show. Together with Badalamenti, the trio composed \u201cJust You,\u201d a song inspired by the Platters, layered with slapback and keening with Marshall\u2019s falsetto, ultimately wringing anxiety from same innocent space he explored with Bobby Vinton and Roy Orbison songs in Blue Velvet<\/em>. In an iconic scene from Episode 9, Marshall performs it with Lara Flynn Boyle and Sheryl Lee, but he didn\u2019t end up playing the guitar part: In a Q&A he said they already recorded it with West Coast punk icon John Doe of X. \u2013-C.W.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tWhile composing the score for Blue Velvet<\/em>, Angelo Badalamenti pulled in the late singer Julee Cruise and introduced Lynch to her aerial vocals \u2013 and quickly, the three of them became permanent fixtures in each other\u2019s creative work. Both and Lynch are all over the credits of Cruise\u2019s debut album Floating into the Night<\/em>, but perhaps the greatest testament to the strength of their collaboration is Cruise\u2019s \u201cFalling,\u201d one of her many contributions to the Twin Peaks <\/em>series soundtrack (she also appeared on several episodes and in the film follow-ups as a haunting roadhouse singer.) The instrumental version became the show\u2019s theme, and the song won an unexpected Grammy in 1991. Cruise\u2019s otherworldly delivery here captures so much of why her sound complimented Lynch\u2019s bewildering universes: Gossamer and ghostly, she sang in a way that easily drifts between heavenly and hair-raising. \u2013Julyssa Lopez<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tIn the final episode of Twin Peaks<\/em>\u2018 original Nineties run, Agent Cooper takes one of his more memorable trips to the red room where the sweet-voiced jazz legend Jimmy Scott was performing the Lynch\/Badalamenti-penned \u201cSycamore Trees\u201d amid the flickering strobe lights. The appearance marked a small career comeback for Scott, who would release a 1992 major-label standards album, All the Way<\/em>, that would get him his first Grammy nomination. \u2013C.W.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tDavid Bowie had been part of Lynch\u2019s world long before his song \u201cI\u2019m Deranged\u201d appeared in the opening sequence of the director\u2019s 1997 alt-horror film Lost Highway<\/em>. Bowie had been a fan of his work, appearing in 1992\u2019s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me <\/em>and basing elements of his album Outside<\/em> on the show. That 1995 LP was a concept album about a murdered teenage girl and the detectives investigating the case. Lynch and soundtrack producer Trent Reznor (working in film for only the second time, after Natural Born Killers<\/em>) chose to start Lost Highway <\/em>with the Outside<\/em> track \u201cI\u2019m Deranged.\u201d The moody synths and moaning lyrics set the tone for what\u2019s been described as Lynch\u2019s most disturbing movie. Appearing on a soundtrack next to tracks from Smashing Pumpkins, Marilyn Manson, and new music from Reznor himself, the song helped introduce Bowie to a new generation ready to have their sense of reality twisted into oblivion. \u2014Elisabeth Garber-Paul\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tLynch\u2019s surreal neo-noir mystery from 2001 hinges on an extraordinarily strange performance at the venue known as Club Silencio. Betty (Naomi Watts) and Rita (Laura Harring), the two characters we\u2019ve gotten to know in the first half of the film, go to the club together late at night. They watch from the audience as real-life SoCal singer-songwriter Rebekah Del Rio performs \u201cLlorando,\u201d her highly emotive Spanish-language cover of Roy Orbison\u2019s \u201cCrying.\u201d Betty and Rita get more and more upset as the performance goes on \u2014 until Del Rio suddenly collapses mid-song, her voice keeps going, and reality starts coming apart at the seams. \u2013Simon Vozick-Levinson<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tLeave it to Lynch to take one of the peppiest pop classics of the Sixties and weave it into the story of an actress\u2019s hellish ride through Hollywood horrors. Partway through Inland Empire<\/em>, as Laura Dern\u2019s character starts slipping into a nightmarish no-man\u2019s land between reality and film set delusions, a group of women appear in front of her and launch into an upbeat choreographed dance to Little Eva\u2019s bright, belt-it-out anthem \u201cLocomotion.\u201d The tonal jump \u2014 paired with Lynch\u2019s signature creepy lighting \u2014 is completely brilliant, making for one of the most WTF moments in the film\u2019s long sequence of WTF moments. Then, in a blink, the dancers are gone, leaving nothing but dead eerie quiet and Dern\u2019s terrified expression as we all try to figure out what just happened.\u2013J.L.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\u2018In Dreams\u2019 from \u2018Blue Velvet\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Love Me\u2019 from \u2018Wild at Heart\u2019<\/h2>\n
Angelo Badalamenti, Music from \u2018Twin Peaks\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Just You\u2019 from \u2018Twin Peaks\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Falling\u2019 from \u2018Twin Peaks\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Sycamore Trees\u2019 from \u2018Twin Peaks\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018I\u2019m Deranged\u2019 from \u2018Lost Highway\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Llorando\u2019 from \u2018Mullholland Drive\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Locomotion\u2019 from \u2018Inland Empire\u2019<\/h2>\n